I'll expand my thoughts later, as covering it for review on a podcast, but I thought this was pretty dreadful. It's like a bad student film that for some reason has Dolph and Washington in it. Dreadful cinematography (way too harshly lit and poor grading). Every apparent production issue is very evident in a messy final product. There's a reason it's only now this is being released after over two years since the first portion of the shoot.

For me this ranks as one of his worst, without even an odd charm that something like Agent Red may have. I really hope that Aquaman and Creed 2 will put an end to Dolph doing DT and Shark Lake level films. He can't seriously need the money that badly. I would settle for The Package level in his DTV work. Sadly the upcoming Zirilli film doesn't suggest so. I hope D takes more care in the following 12 months.

Apparently he does, and he said so himself in one of the recent interviews. Hard to believe it's taken 8 years but the divorce is only coming to an end, and he just bought a house in LA. He surely isn't paid what used to be even as a starring role given the economy, whereas back in the day making one movie for Nu Image or Franchise he didn't necessarily work for a year. The number of commercials he's been in is another proof (sure doing one for Volvo can be cool like being in a blockbuster, but the Swedish online casino likely wasn't a priority choice of taste)...

I would suspect even an advert like Volvo would be just as lucrative (or maybe even that ITV show) as some of the DTV films he's been doing. There's just no money in them any more. Dead Trigger looks so cheap, I'd be astonished if Dolph earned anything significant. If he did, it probably accounted for a huge majority of the budget. And I'd hazard a guess that a big slice of budget ending up in some pockets somewhere to, and certainly not on screen.

I just hope he can hold fire a little. He just bought that 3 million dollar house recently (Was it Beverley Hills?) so he can't be desperate. He could get well paid doing a reasonable DTV production for a more reputable company. I'm just hoping the Shark Lake days are, for now at least, behind us.

Trouble is, I see a worrying DTV trend. Most of the top selling DTV films in stores in the UK in 2018 weren't really star vehicles. REX, a film about an army dog was the most successful, staying in the overall charts 28 weeks. But looking at some of the stats, a lot of the 'star' vehicles didn't do particualrly well. Black Water wasn't very successful as a seller over here. Don't think it made much headway in the US either. (But overall because of the Asia gross probably ranks as one of D and JC's most successful DTV sellers in recent years). Like Big screen, where franchise and concept is king over star (as I said in an another thread, Keanu can't sell anything besides Wick...). There are very few bankable leads that people flock to now, Dwayne Johnson being one. That aside you could easily interchange cast in Marvel, Disney films, blockbusters etc. People see Bond to see Bond, rather than to see Daniel Craig for example.

That trend appears to be following in DTV, and I suspect we'll see budgets drop even further. So films like Dead Trigger will be an inevitability for D, even Sly etc, but I really hope this little wave gives him a couple of years grace to do better, get a couple of directorial gigs greenlit, and perhaps come to a point where he can retire gracefully. Sly's last two DTV films have been horrific and he's looking ridiculous now.

And I'd hazard a guess that a big slice of budget ending up in some pockets somewhere to, and certainly not on screen.

I'm pretty sure he's not always paid what he's due (especially when the budget doesn't come through) or has to wait or go after the money for a while which is also a common practice from producers.

I really hope this little wave gives him a couple of years grace to do better, get a couple of directorial gigs greenlit, and perhaps come to a point where he can retire gracefully.

Yes. A few directorial efforts is what I wish (more than being cast in big movies, and personally JOHN WICK isn't my cup of tea). And now is the perfect time to relaunch this side of his career and craft. I'm a little worried that the production of MALEVOLENCE seemed locked to start this January and now yet it looks like it's on hold. And even though it's a tougher sell, getting on NORDIC LIGHT later this year or next would be fantastic.